Four years ago Michael Clarke arrived in the West Indies as a player who was so anonymous Brian Lara thought he was a reporter. The pair was being picked up at the airport in the same car and Clarke introduced himself as they waited.

"It was quite a funny meeting at first,” Clarke said in the Sun-Herald. “I was calling him Mr Lara and he thought I was a journalist. After I told him I was in the squad, he said he knew a bit about me, but he hadn't been able to put the name to the face. Brian and I got talking, and our friendship's gone from there.”

It might be Clarke’s first World Cup, but he is unlikely to go unnoticed. He is in form after 82 and 24 not out in the warm-ups and is a key part of Australia’s trophy defence.